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Tuesday, February 17, 2015.
The crescendo of talk of Boise State as a candidate for the NCAA Tournament had become a distraction (in my opinion). Combine that with two key parts of the Bronco roster missing another game due to suspension, this time for a tricky road date at Fresno State, and BSU's bubble was made of soap and easily burst Saturday. Boise State precariously holds on to sole possession of third place in the Mountain West going into tomorrow night's game at UNLV. The Broncos are 1½ games out first place—and one game out of sixth. That's what they have to concern themselves with now. Getting to the Big Dance without the MW's automatic berth just became a longer shot—19-6 would have had a much better ring to it right now than 18-7.
The Broncos' 70-64 loss to the Bulldogs showed how fleeting fame can be, coming as it did with a discouraging 13-3 run at the finish by Fresno State. With Mikey Thompson and Montigo Alford out, Thompson in particular, every guy has to be on his offensive game. And only Derrick Marks really was with his 31 points (last year in Fresno, Marks went 2-for-7 from the field and scored just four points). James Webb III was due for a downer sooner or later—he was 1-for-7 and missed all five of his three-pointers. Chandler Hutchison will probably become a Boise State mainstay, but the learning curve has been difficult. The true freshman forward was also just 1-for-7 from the field. And the Bulldogs were wise to Nick Duncan, who was able to attempt only three shots from beyond the arc (he made two).
If you listen to Fresno State players, the Jerry Tarkanian effect was very real Saturday. The Bulldogs wore “Tark” patches and left an empty chair next to their bench with a folded white towel. “We knew we were playing in (Tarkanian’s) honor, and we wanted to go out and get a win in memory of him,” said Marvelle Harris, who led Fresno State with 24 points against Boise State.
It only gets more intense now, as the Broncos visit the place where Tarkanian made his mark tomorrow night. Most casinos on the Las Vegas Strip have agreed to dim their non-essential exterior lights for a few minutes starting at 10:30 p.m. Pacific time tomorrow in a tribute to the Hall of Fame coach. The event is timed to follow the end of the Bronco-UNLV game. It’s a Vegas thing—in the past the Strip has been dimmed to honor Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy.
The wait for ESPN's decision on the date of the Boise State-Washington game is messing with our countdown. If the Broncos and Huskies play Friday, September 4, then yesterday marked the 200-day point leading to the start of the 2015 season. If it ends up on Thursday, September 3, the game was 200 days from Sunday. Hey—anything we can do to hype the Broncos and Huskies. One date has been determined that first month of the season: Boise State’s game against Idaho State has been pushed up a day to Friday, September 18, to give the Broncos a full week to prepare for Virginia the following Friday. Hopefully that doesn’t erase the only hope for an afternoon kickoff this season at Albertsons Stadium.
Idaho State offensive coordinator Don Bailey thought he was going to make his return to Albertsons Stadium in September with the Bengals. Now it’ll be later in the fall, as Bailey has taken the O-coordinator’s job at Hawaii. He coached wide receivers and tight ends during a four-year stint with the Broncos under Pokey Allen from 1993-96. Bailey's ISU offense led the FCS in passing last season with 348 yards per game and was second in total offense with 562 yards per game. That led to a national FCS Offensive Coordinator of the Year award for Bailey. Not only that, former Boise State defensive coordinator Tom Mason, also a former Allen assistant, will return to the blue turf the same day, as he is Norm Chow’s new D-coordinator with the Rainbow Warriors. Mason served as the Broncos’ interim coach while Pokey was away battling cancer in 1996.
Former NHL first round draft pick Jack Campbell emerged from his first three games as an Idaho Steelhead with a 1-2 record as the Steelies split with the Utah Grizzlies in Boise—then were shut out by the Grizzlies for the first time this season yesterday in West Valley City. Campbell didn’t play badly at all, but Utah’s Igor Bobkov was splendid between the pipes on President’s Day. He rejected all 32 Steelies shots on goal, including 16 in the third period. Bobkov also cooled off Idaho’s Wade McLeod, who had scored five goals in the previous five games. Campbell’s big night was Friday in Boise, when he picked up his first victory at the ECHL level this season by turning aside 22 of 23 Utah shots. The Steelheads are on the road again this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Stockton.
Graham DeLaet had a wildly uneven experience at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. I had written Friday that the former Boise State star was "just about toast" after a first-round 76 at Spyglass. Then DeLaet carded a 65 Friday at Pebble Beach and a 64 Saturday at Monterey Peninsula to zoom up to a tie for 24th on the leaderboard. But he slid to a final-round 76 Sunday at Pebble and plummeted to a tie for 57th, earning $15,232 when it could have been a lot higher.
Boise's Hailey Duke returned to the U.S. Ski Team Saturday with a start in the slalom at the World Championships in Beaver Creek, CO. Duke qualified for both runs and finished 28th with a combined time of 1:44.95, 6½ seconds behind champion and U.S. teammate Mikaela Schifrin. Duke improved her time on the second run by 1½ seconds. It was her best World Cup result of the season.
Back around the hoops horn: the Idaho men's Big Sky record is even again at 6-6 and they're within a game of .500 overall at 11-12 following the 69-58 upset of Sacramento State in Cowan Spectrum Saturday night. Hard to believe Senior Night is already past for the College of Idaho men. The seven seniors sure made it count Saturday, combining for 83 points in the Yotes' 95-76 win over Corban. And the Boise State women are lurking again in the Mountain West race. The Broncos are within 1½ games of first place after toppling Fresno State 75-66 in overtime Saturday at Taco Bell Arena.
The Idaho Stampede's Jerrelle Benimon played 17 minutes Sunday in the D-League All-Star Game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Benimon scored only two points but had six rebounds, three offensive, in the West Conference's 129-94 loss to the East. Try as I might, I could not find any Shane Gibson results from the D-League 3-Point Shooting Contest Sunday. Jarell Eddie of Austin won the contest, and he’ll be in CenturyLink Arena tomorrow night with his Spurs teammates to take on the Stamps.
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February 17, 2004: The New York Yankees, thought by many to be evolving into merely an All-Star team, plug in what was thought to be the biggest prize yet. The Yankees finalized a trade with the Texas Rangers to bring in reigning American League MVP Alex Rodriguez and his $25 million a year contract (although Texas was still responsible for a good chunk of it). The Yanks planned to make A-Rod a third baseman, leaving team captain Derek Jeter at shortstop. The blemishes on Rodriguez’s expected legacy have been too many to count.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment Sunday nights at 10:30PM on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra and anchors five sports segments each weekday on 93.1 The Ticket. He also served as color commentator on KTVB’s telecasts of Boise State football for 14 seasons.)
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